The Importance of Music and Dance in My Life

Music is sound, composed in certain rhythms to express people’s feelings or to transfer certain feelings. Dance is physical movement also used to express joy or other intense feelings. It can be anything from ballet to break-dance. In my life music is much more important than dance. I prefer experiencing most things inside my mind. I don’t need psychical movement to experience joy. Sometimes I use music to escape from reality, there is nothing I love to do more than listen to certain types of music that relates to my feelings at that moment. When I am a little bit down, listening to music with messages I am familiar with, is in a certain way comforting for me. As a child, I started playing the guitar. Sometimes when I feel creative I get my guitar and start playing. It is very satisfactory for me to listen to music I make myself. It empties my mind and gives me some kind of satisfied feeling. When I am, for example, in a bar enjoying music, I don’t feel the urge to move my body. That’s why in this essay I will be focusing on music much more than on dance.

I always have music playing around me. There are a  lot of different kinds of music I listen to. Sometimes I listen to music for the lyrics, sometimes just for the hypnotizing beat. For example in the car, I like to listen to instrumental music, known as “Minimal” This kind of music makes me drive easier and it keeps me focused for a longer period of time. When I’m alone, studying, I prefer listening to instrumental classical music.  That music has some kind of calmness and it has no distracting lyrics, so I can focus on my study work much better. Overall, my choice of music depends on what mood I am in.

In general, music has a lot of influence and has a lot of forms of expression. For example, you can see, hear and feel music (when it is loud enough). Music can enlighten you, make you depressed or make you think of love. Music can keep traditions alive. I’m pretty sure I will sing the same songs to my children, that my parents sang to me when I was a little child. Music is also known for its ability to “save lives”. People who are very depressed and alone can find comfort in listening to certain singers, bands or songs. Everybody, including myself, has experienced something like this. For example, losing your (grand)parents or lover. Listening to music gets you all the way through the pain. Music can also remind you of how things were. When I listen to old music from the 60’s or 70’s, even I (born in the 80’s) get some kind of nostalgic feeling. Music can also help you form opinions or give you different views of society. Of course music can also deliver poetic messages, or it can just be entertaining. Music changes, because society changes. Think of technological improvement or changing views. One reason why I prefer music much more in my life than dance, is that music does not restrict my thoughts. When listening to music I can create whatever image I want. No thoughts are required to enjoy music, though it can be thought-inspiring. When you listen to lyrics, you can hear the pain or joy associated with them. I have a h3 preference for lyrics who are written by the artist himself. When artists don’t write their own music, they never felt the pain or joy they are singing about. And it makes the song in particular less convincing. I think that people who have writers to make up lyrics for them to sing, aren’t musicians, they are just singers. Some bands or musicians have a lot of emotions, that they want to sing about. These are my favourite, because you can sense the emotions. It is much more beautiful than just some random words. These kind of musicians give themselves to listeners, and that way they make themselves vulnerable. The listeners use that music as a tool to deal with love, anger or pain.

Music is essential for everybody. Any earlier attempts to control or forbid music, as made by communist politics, are unrealistic and have never succeeded. Music always played some role in the history of humans. I can’t imagine a world without music. It is impossible. We would be unable to express our feelings, or be creative. We could not find any inspiration. I even think the psychical appearance of the world would be very different without music, because people come up with the most brilliant ideas while listening to their favourite kind of music. It also has been proven that listening to music raises intelligence. Especially by young children. The earlier a child is exposed to music, the more advanced their spatial reasoning skills will be. The study of Drs. Rausher and Shaw show that music generates neural connections which are necessary for understanding math.

As discussed above, music can have different purposes. It can be used to keep you focused, or as a tool to help dealing with problems. It even can make you more intelligent. I really believe that music can influence and change a person’s mind or mood. Music is a universal language and it brings people together. My greatest experience with music as a universal language is a Festival in France called “Saint Chartier”. People from all over the world go there every year to sing, play music and dance with each other. When I am at that festival, I always get a euphoric feeling. It makes me able to completely empty my mind. To refer to dance, for me music is a facilitator for bringing physical responses. I don’t need to dance in order to experience the music. I have a great interest in music and I will always have. I don’t know what to do without music in my life. Without music, my life would be much less complete.